New York Pizza How to Find the Best

Jared P. LanderColumbia UniversityDecember 3, 2008

What is New York Style?

Charring and air bubbles around the crust

Thin Slices

Just the right bend for folding

Family TreeLombardi’s (1905)

Totonno’s (1924)

Patsy’s (1933)

John’s of Bleecker (1929)

Grimaldi’s (1990)

The Data

MenuPages.com has menus, ratings, locations and price information for nearly 700 restaurants tagged as pizza in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn

Slice, a pizza blog, has a definitive listing (and maps) of coal pizzerias An exhaustive Google search provided wood classifications

The Data

Rating Histogram

Ratings Breakdown

Model for Rating

logit(Rating/5.5) ~ 0.77571 – 0.1782*AreaMidtown Wald test

Model 1: logit(Rating/5.5) ~ Area Model 2: logit(Rating/5.5) ~ 1 Res.Df Df F Pr(>F) 1 640 2 643 -3 2.8195 0.03826 *

Perhaps is more appropriate due to its simplicity and the minimal impact of the lone coefficient in the model Maybe all pizza is for the most part pretty good

3.646Y_

Ratings Breakdown

.020 .005 .006

One Sided P-Value

Review Count

Use the number of reviews as a proxy for popularity

Why do people frequent these pizzerias in the first place?

Number of Reviews by Area

Number of Reviews by Fuel

Number of Reviews by Price

Reviews Histogram

Approximately Poisson

Model for Review Count

Number.Reviews ~ 3.826 + 0.157*AreaUptown – 1.641*FuelGas – 0.734*FuelWood - 0.545*PriceExpensive + 0.119*FuelGas:PriceExpensive + 0.670*FuelWood:PriceExpensive (Poisson Regression)

Coefficients: Estimate SE z-value

Pr(>|z|) (Intercept) 3.82693 0.05899 64.876 < 2e-16 *** AreaUptown 0.15733 0.02156 7.297 2.94e-13 *** FuelGas -1.64163 0.06019 -27.273 < 2e-16 *** FuelWood -0.73476 0.08884 -8.271 <

2e-16 *** PriceExpensive -0.54561 0.07919 -6.890 5.60e-12 *** FuelGas:PriceExpensive 1.11908 0.08289 13.501 < 2e-16 *** FuelWood:PriceExpensive 0.67017 0.10819 6.195 5.85e-10 ***

Model for Review Count

Number.Reviews ~ 3.826 + 0.157*AreaUptown – 1.641*FuelGas – 0.734*FuelWood - 0.545*PriceExpensive + 0.119*FuelGas:PriceExpensive + 0.670*FuelWood:PriceExpensive (Poisson Regression)

Wald test Model 1: Number.Reviews ~ Area + Fuel + Price +

Price * Fuel Model 2: Number.Reviews ~ 1 Res.Df Df F Pr(>F) 1 637 2 643 -6 309.94 < 2.2e-16 ***

Fitted Values

Coal and then wood dominates!

All pizzerias on this list are categorized as expensive

Both Uptown and Downtown

Top Pizzerias

Lombardi’s Di Fara Joe’s John’s of Bleecker Totonno’s (Coney

Island) Vinny Vincenz Pizza 33 No. 28

Patsy’s (East Harlem)

Artichoke Maffei’s New York Pizza

Suprema Una Pizza

Napoletana Franny’s

Conclusions

Coal ovens attract large crowds and the higher prices are worth paying

The old adage about pizza is true: “Even when it’s bad, it’s still good.”

Jared’s Picks

Pie:

Margherita:

Neapolitan:

Upscale:

Largest:

John’s of Bleecker

Pizza 33

Joe’s (Carmine St.)

Una Pizza Napoletana

Koronet

Specialty:

Sicilian:

Grandma:

Upside Down:

Cheapest:

Artichoke

Vinny Vincenz

Maffei’s

New York Pizza Suprema

Crocodile Lounge*

* Free with purchase of beer